Italian-Swiss flutist Livia Schweizer (b.1994) is a flutist, improviser and teacher based in Helsinki.

Livia grew up in Tuscany and started to study flute at the age of 8 at the Conservatory Mascagni of Livorno in Mauro Rossi’s class. Already at the age of 13 she started winning prizes in national music competitions, and since a very young age showed a deep interest in practicing and performing music from 20th and 21st century. Attracted by the nordic cultures and by the new music coming from the Finnish musical scene, in 2012 Livia took part in the Erasmus program at the OAMK in Oulu and after graduating from the Conservatory of Livorno in 2014 she moved to Helsinki to study at the Sibelius Academy in Mikael Helasvuo’s flute class.

Since moving to Helsinki Livia has been a very active freelancer, she has performed as soloist and in chamber music for festivals such as the Flow Festival, Helsingin Juhlaviikot, the UNM Festival, Tulkinnanvaraista, Luosto Soi and Musica Nova, proving upon different occasions to be a very versatile musician who loves to engage with different kinds of repertoire and to perform in different musical contexts. Her passion towards contemporary and experimental music brought her to be part in several projects with the Nyky-ensemble, Avanti!, Korvat Auki, the UMUU-ensemble, Eloa ry and Tampering, and in 2021 she became member of the Earth Ears Ensemble, an ensemble focused on contemporary music from lesser heard voices.

Alongside the dedication to contemporary music, in the last years Livia developed a strong interest towards improvisation and multidisciplinary collaborations. Indeed, she thinks that, through improvisation, the use of non-conventional music notation and multidisciplinary dialogue it is possible to create an inclusive space where individual voices from different cultures and disciplines can emerge, merge, and give life to exciting artistic results. As improviser and flutist she is member of the E.C.I.O. | the European Composers Improvisers Orchestra, and of the Helsinki based Septad-ensemble, an ensemble focused on the concept of real time composed music. As a solo project Livia is especially interested in how improvisation and text scores can be a medium to connect with environment and create intercultural dialogue, and, aiming to explore this topic in 2021 she has been artist in residence at the Old Mine Residency in Outokumpu (Finland) and at Villa Karo in Grand-Popo (Benin).

She is also an active orchestral player; in 2018 she had her apprenticeship at the Finnish National Opera, she is a member of the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra and in the last two years she worked with the Jyväskylä Sinfonia, the Pori Sinfonietta and she served as substitute co-principal flute in the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and substitute piccolo player for the Lahti Symphony Orchestra.

In the Spring of 2019 Livia studied as an exchange student at the University of Southern California in Jim Walker’s flute class and in 2021 she got her master’s degree in flute and music pedagogy at the Sibelius Academy (University of the Arts), with minors in early music and contemporary music. Her flute teachers in Finland have been Mikael Helasvuo and Hanna Kinnunen, and Jari Puhakka for the baroque flute.

 

While being a freelancer Livia is also a flute and music teacher for the International School of Music Finland in Helsinki since 2019. She has experience teaching flute to beginners, teenagers and adults and she also teaches music to play-school aged children from 1 to 6 years old. Inspired by the work with very young children she wrote her pedagogy master thesis on the theme of “Expanding Musical Creativity through Playfulness”.

At the moment Livia has on her music stand “Bite” for bass flute solo by Rebecca Saunders and Hyperoxic for bass flute and objects by Malin Bång.